you wish you might be luckier than I, Mr. Ninian?"

A glance flashed between the reporter and the sharpshooter, but not
quite swiftly enough to escape the girl's observation; and, after a
moment's pause, she exclaimed:

"Why, I believe you have already seen it!"

There was an awkward silence, which Mrs. Trent broke by the stern
reproof she managed to throw into one word: "Jessica!"

"Yes, mother, I know. It's silly, and I will be careful not to mention
the delightful subject before the children."

"What are you but a child yourself, my mature little woman?" demanded
the visitor, playfully.

"Why, I'm a little girl, of course; but one who always wanted to see a
fairy, till somebody told me there was none. Now I'm longing for this
'spook'--that really is, 'cause so many, many have seen it--and I'm
not even let to talk about him."

Mrs. Trent shook her head regretfully.

"I'm afraid we've spoiled you among us, my darling. But, leaving these
unexplained things to explain themselves at their proper time, suppose
you go and see that all is ready in Mr. Sharp's room? Wun Lung is
still mooning by himself on the kitchen stoop and will do what you ask
him."

"They all do that, I infer," commented Ninian, as the child hastened
away, eager to serve all whom she loved.

"Yes, they do. It's a delightful, but not, maybe, the wisest life for
any girl to live. No playmates except her two small brothers, and no
schooling that is at all regular or effective. I can't imagine what
Sobrante would be without her, and yet----"

She paused and "Forty-niner" took up her sentence:

"It wouldn't be Sobrante, mistress. That's all. I, for one, couldn't
stay here and serve under any other body now except my captain;" and
so saying, as if a shadow of the future fell upon him, the old man
rose and went out, quite forgetting to say good-night.

Meanwhile, Jessica had found Wun Lung and also found him more than
willing to go with her and perform even additional tasks, since by so
doing he might have the comfort and safety of human presence.
Fragments of talk had come to him in his kitchen concerning the
apparitions which had startled the whole countryside, during these
past few days, and had received the strongest confirmation from his
housemate, Pasqual. The latter believed, indeed, all that he himself
heard and invented much more. He had grown to be afraid of his own
shadow and now resorted to the men's quarters on each and every
occas